[1]As an indication of how prevalent this singing of religious hymns
was, we note the fact that in 1512, twelve years before Luther’s
first hymnbook appeared, a collection of Roman Catholic hymns, set
to profane tunes, was issued in Venice, Italy.
[2]“To Luther belongs the extraordinary merit of having given to the
German people in their own tongue the Bible, the Catechism, and
the Hymnbook, so that God might speak directly to them in his
Word, and that they might directly answer him in their songs.” Dr.
Philip Schaff adds elsewhere that Luther “is the father of the
modern High German language and literature,” and that these are
the common possession of the Germanic tribes with their
diversified dialects from the Adriatic to the Baltic Sea. Erasmus
Alber, a contemporary who wrote twenty excellent hymns, calls
Luther “the German Cicero, who not only reformed religion, but
also the German language.” Hans Sachs, the poet cobbler of
Nuremberg, who, besides a great deal of general poetry, also wrote
a number of hymns, styled Luther “the nightingale of Wittenberg.”